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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The other day I was going through a binder of internet printouts and found a tree I've been wanting to tat for ...years! I printed it out on 10/15/99 so that tells you how long ago it was. The first tree was okay but I missed a ring much too late to fix it and as usual, the first time I follow new instructions, there are challenges. Maus had a drawing but not everything was in it. Some rings were missing numbers and picots or joins didn't show at all by the usual lines. These were the early days of diagramming and there were very few patterns online that showed diagramming as we know it today. Software has made it very easy to show joins and stitch counts now. Her text skipped parts that she thought would show in the diagram but occasionally, they left something out that wasn't clear on the diagram either. That was how I missed a ring. It has to be a split ring (#44) but you couldn't tell from the original diagram and text. I've adapted the diagram a little, trying to fill in the gaps. I lettered the chains although I'm not sure that isn't more confusing. I also added the number of picots on the chains, partly because they changed in the pattern and partly because I also changed them from the original count in the pattern.

The website I printed it from no longer exists so I couldn't provide a link and I'm sure some of you will want to try this one. Maus (aka Etha Shuette) also had an all white tree on her site but I like the colored and beaded version she had. She used 2 colors, brown for the rings and green for the chains but I used Omega variegated size 30. The color number is not anywhere on the label, but it's a mixture of olive green to gold yellow. It's more a muted old world sort of color which seemed perfect for this. She used size 30 Cebelia in the original white one which was about 5 1/2 inches tall. Her green one was done in size 80 and was 4 inches tall. If you use beads, string 160 beads on the chain thread. I also had 3 on the ring thread for the top of the tree ring. Mine came out to be 4 1/2 inches tall and I had to pull on it pretty good to the sides to get it to lay nicely.

I emailed Maus to ask permission to post the diagram of her pattern since there wasn't a website to go to any longer and she very kindly said yes and even sent a larger diagram. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. There is link in the upper right you can click on. I tried to condense the written part as much as possible. The diagram should enlarge when you click on it to something that will print out big enough to see easily.

~~~~~~~Start with ring 1 and continue up to split rings 5 & 6 which turn and come down the other side, joining to corresponding rings on first side. Ring 11 is a split ring which turns you in the opposite direction to go up again. The first two chains have 6 picots with 2 ds between but the next row around has 7 picots in the bottom 2 chains and after that have 6 picots with 2 ds between. Check each part to see how many picots are in the chain.

Rings going up the sides are 12-p-12 or 12 + 12. The center rings vary in size. The 3rd row of chains is 7 picots for the bottom 4 row and then 6 picots for the top 2. All chains on the outer part are 7 picots but the top center ring joins to the last picot and first picot of chains leading to and away from it. All chains have 4 ds before and after the sets of picots. All ZZ chains are 3 -2-2-2-2-3. I’ll list the size of the rings here but you must follow the diagram to know if there is a picot or a join needed.

Chains Z at the top are the regular 4 ds, 7 p sep by 2 ds, 4 ds but ring #53 joins to the last picot and the first p of chains leading to and away from the ring. ( I know I said it, but it bears repeating)

Ring 63 at base of tree is 12 – 8 – 4. Then ring 64 joins to last picot of ring 63. Ring 65 joins to last p of ring 64 and then 8 - 12, clr

And I will lastly say this took me longer to tat than I expected - probably because of the beads. It probably took a good 6 hours.

It wasn't that bad Maus! Didn't mean for it to sound like that - but it sure makes you realize how far we've come in diagramming and our expectations. Now we're color coded and show every picot and the number of stitches in each segment with arrows to show you which direction to go in. The thing is, the pattern still works as is. Thanks for still sharing it!:-)Gina